C.E.O. or Employee? The Disadvantages

Okay, we’ve looked at the advantages of being an employee and being the boss. Now let’s look at the disadvantages of employment and self-employment. Of course, since you are reading this article, you probably already have a mental list of disadvantages for being employed. Let’s see how your list compares to these downsides of employment.

Employee Cons

• Your work assignments, and ultimately your employment, are determined by someone else.
• In differences of opinion, your boss, not you, gets to have the final say.
• Your work environment is determined by the company.
• Your wages and benefits are determined by the company.
• The company’s profits are not yours.

With that list, it seems that no independent thinking individual would ever want to work for someone else. And when your run the company, you make the decisions and earn all the profit (minus taxes, of course). So why not work for yourself? Are there problems with self-employment. Of course, and here are just some of them.

CEO Cons

• You have no paid vacations, holidays or sick days.
• You are directly responsible to your customers.
• You must do any work you can’t afford to hire someone to do.
• Your income is fully dependent on success of company, and less than half of new businesses survive four years.
• You are responsible for every aspect of the business.

Basically, when you own the business, everything is on your shoulders. You can hire others to do work for you, but their performance is still your responsibility. There is no passing the buck when you are the CEO.

The decision to work for yourself or someone else is about the type of person you are. Do you take risks? How do you handle failure/success? In what work environment are you most happy? In a few days we will look at some assessment tools for helping determine the answer to some of these questions.

C.E.O. or Employee? The Advantages

If you are like me (and most other people), you have spent the majority of your present career working for someone else. But the option of working for yourself is one worth considering. But you have to be realistic and consider all the pros and cons. In this article we will look at some of the advantages of being the boss and for remaining an employee.

In many ways society has glamorized self-employment. Nearly everyone has romanticized about being our own boss; blazing our own trail. But there are definitely advantages to working for someone else.

Advantages to Being an Employee:

• Steady income that is independent of company success (in most cases)
• Only responsible for your scope of work
• Usually comes with benefits such as health care and paid vacations
• You are not responsible for the cost of equipment/materials to do your work
• Company Picnics (or is that a disadvantage?)

Hmm, maybe working for the Man is not so bad. So let’s take a look at the benefits of working for yourself.

Advantages to Being Self Employed:

• Determine what the company does
• Decide who you work with
• No conflicts with your boss
• You can’t be fired (but you can fail)
• Income possibilities are limited only by the success of the company

A lot has to with these two factors: Security vs. Risk and Independence vs. Dependence. We will look closer at these issues in a later article. And tomorrow, we will list some of the disadvantages of being self-employed and working for someone else.

Taking the Safe Route

Sometimes I think it's that I am simply scared, but I have decided to take the safe route to making the career shift. I am moonlighting at other things while continuing employment at my "safe" job. Of course, there are at least two problems with this: 1) I am tempted to focus on my moonlighting activities and not enough on my main job, and 2) I am not able to fully devote myself to my career change.

Starting this blog (and a couple others) is the first step to me moving away from my current work. I am unsure of the career path that I will be following, but it will have something to do with information sharing. It could be in the form of writing, teaching, speaking or all of the above. But for today, I need to remember to do a great job for those who employ me.

Remember, if you take the safe route, don't give less than your best to your FIRST employer!

Time for a Career Change

For some, a midlife career change is a choice. For others, it is a necessity. Today, many individuals face a significant career change resulting from a layoff, termination, a physical accident or other external circumstances. In his article about how to prepare for a career change, Mike Bellah refers to the study by a Harvard economist that show that today’s “middle-aged men are twice as likely to lose their jobs in a permanent layoff as they were 13 years ago.” Sometimes life determines for you when the career change is necessary.

Well then, with the exception of external circumstances, when would you want to consider a career change? A common answer is when you want (or need) to make more money. I mean, that’s why you have the job in the first place, right? Okay, that’s one way to look at it. But money is only one of the benefits of working. What about enjoying what you do, making a difference and having new and exciting experiences?

Needing to make more money is not the only reason to consider a career change. Other reasons can include: your career no longer excites you, your work is too stressful, or your work is in conflict with other aspects of your life. When you find yourself dreading work, it’s time to consider a change. I don’t mean the occasional, “I don’t want to go to work today.” I mean the everyday wish that you were doing something different.

Is there an ideal time to make a career change? According to the advice at AllBusiness.com, “the best time to consider a career change is when you are safely ensconced in your existing one. A steady paycheck can relieve a lot of pressure.” This allows you to examine your talents, explore career options and even test the waters of various careers without the fear of how bills will be paid.

So, if you find yourself unhappy at work, but still employed with a steady paycheck, you might want to do as I am doing and consider a career change. Take control now when it is your choice. Do something today to start that change. Just one step. The possibilities are vast and the next great career might be just around the corner.

Life Happens

John Lennon once said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

That's me. Always making other plans but never really making anything happen. I am the guy who always has an idea, a better way of doing things. I'm a thinker, not so much a doer. Thinkers are bad, but without the doer, nothing really happens. Well, as John said, life happens. Doers actually control their lives. They make things happen. Actually, we are all in the driver's seat, but some of us have let go of the wheel. Well, now I am grabbing the wheel...taking control.

The transition from daydreamer to activist is not going to be easy. I first need some goals (more about that in a later blog), then some concrete steps to meeting those goals. I know the drill, so now I have to put it in action.

No more sitting on the sidelines; time to grab the wheel and take control.

BTW, for those of you who like quotes as much as I do, check out these websites: QuoteLand.com, QuoteWorld.org, and GoodQuotes.com.